All posts by gstevenson

We are very pleased to announce that Big Viking Games has successfully negotiated the acquisition of YoVille! On May 12th, the game will go offline for roughly 24 hours while all the necessary information is transferred to us. When it comes back online, it will be in our hands and will be known as YoWorld from then on.

In short: #Save_YoVille status: COMPLETE!

This turn of events is without precedent, and it never could have happened without your endless support and campaigning. We are blown away by your love and devotion for the game, and the fact that you never gave up hope. You have truly shown us what the community is made of, and we at Big Viking Games are both proud and honored to be lucky enough to work with you in ushering in a new era of the game.

So what does the future of YoWorld look like? We’ll go into more detail on this next, but the plan is simple: Make the game bigger and better. Fix the bugs and loopholes. Work with players to create exciting new content and features that everyone will love.

The scope of taking over a living, breathing game like YoWorld, complete with over 6 years of history, is huge. Not just technologically, but also from a production standpoint. We’ve had many, many discussions on how to proceed, and we always come back to the same 3 core ideas – our YoValues.

YoValue #1: Safe and Secure

In order to run YoWorld successfully and make it a great experience for everyone, it is incredibly important to keep the game and its players free from exploitation. Not only will we devote a large amount of resources to moderation, but also to creating better systems to detect cheaters, give players better tools to avoid scams and hacked items, and more ability to deal with harassment.

Exploits will be patched regularly, and we will ban players who take advantage of them. Real money trading is harmful to our ability to keep the game going, and will be dealt with appropriately. The Free Gift item issues are of particular focus, we have collaborated to fix a major exploit with this already.

A bug bounty program will also be put into place. The first person (and only the first one) to provide us with evidence of a particular working exploit and any reproduction steps will be rewarded with YoCash. Send any information you have to [email protected]

YoValue #2: Community Engagement

Having a good working relationship with the YoWorld community is essential for us. We value your suggestions and feedback enormously, and we want to make sure we’re listening to you and giving you the ability to talk to us and vice versa. This doesn’t mean we can always give you everything you want, but your voice will definitely be heard and your feedback considered.

The forums and product page will still be in place as before, but we will also introduce new, more direct channels for your feedback, including an active support staff, opinion polls, and more.

YoValue #3: User Generated Experiences

The thing that sets YoWorld apart from other games on Facebook is how so much of the fun in the game is created by the players, not the creators. We think that’s awesome, and want to add many new features, minigames and other exciting updates to make playing with others even better than before.

One of the first things we’ll be doing is working to get an events system back into the game, as they were fantastic for user generated experiences. From there, we’ll be reviewing your suggestions on other things you wish were in the game to do with other players too.

A big focus will be to get people coming back into the game that have stopped playing. YoWorld will be more fun with more people, and we’ll need your help! Spread the word, invite your friends, share this post!

We know there will be many more questions, comments and concerns from players in the coming weeks, and we’ve created a brief FAQ list below to answer a few we’ve anticipated. We will also be hosting a Question & Answer event at a later date, where Greg Thomson (creator of YoVille) and other members of the YoWorld team will be on hand to answer questions. Details of this to follow. You can pre-submit your questions by sending an email to [email protected]

Once again, thank you for all of your continued support, and welcome to the Big Viking Games family. It’s going to be fun!

– The YoWorld Team

Anticipated Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Will the forums be transferred?

A: We will be setting up a new community space for YoWorld players to interact outside of the game.

Q: Do I need to do anything to transfer to YoWorld.

A: No. Your details will be transferred to us automatically UNLESS you fill out the account deletion form.

Q: Do I need to fill out the Account Deletion Form?

A: Fill this out ONLY if you want your YoWorld account to be deleted permanently instead of transferred to Big Viking Games.

Q: Will events be turned back on?

A: Yes. We will be rebuilding the event technology to allow players to host events once again!

Q: Why change the name from YoVille to YoWorld?

A: It was a necessary step in being able to obtain the game, but it also speaks to our goal of making the game bigger and better than ever before!

Q: Will we keep our apartments, avatars, items etc?

A: Absolutely.

Q: What about FG items?

A: Free Gift items that were created by hackers will be removed if possible, and we aim to stop any more of these items from entering the game.

Q: What about unreleased items?

A: If we can identify and remove them, we will. We will need your help on this!

Q: What will you do about the hackers?

A: We will get rid of the exploits and take necessary action against players who take advantage of other players and the game.

Q: What new things will you introduce to YoWorld?

A: We will focus on fixing what already exists, as well as adding exciting new features and content. Player suggestions will make a huge difference in what we do, so let’s see what we can come up with!

Q: Will the Auction House be fixed?

A: We know the Auction House has some issues, and we definitely want to get those fixed up! Illegitimate items and poor performance are the biggest concerns that we aim to address.

Q: Will there be new ninjas?

A: We will have several player helpers in a similar role to the ninjas, who will be known by their Viking prefix.

Q: Why aren’t you taking over the game yet?

A: Players must be given a certain amount of time to opt out of the account transfer, as we are a third party to the previous owners and there are many internal and external rules governing this type of acquisition.

Q: Will you be re-releasing specific items?

A: Unlikely, but we may create new variations of them.

Q: What do I do if I want to tell you about a bug or an item I’d like to see created?

A: Once the game is in our hands there will be a channel for sending these things to us. Posting in the forum is the best bet for right now!

Q: We used to be YoVillians, what do we call ourselves now?

A: That’s up to you! We’re interested to see what you come up with. Current office suggestions are YoWorldians, YoWos, YoYos and YoPeeps.

Q: I have another question that you haven’t answered here.

A: We will be doing a Q&A soon, so submit your questions to [email protected] and we’ll try our best to answer them! Details of when and where the Q&A will take place will be forthcoming.